New Approaches to Travelling

We all have our own idea of what travel planning involves. For me, it’s always been a case of asking a group of friends if they want to go away and then, coming to a consensus about where and when. It’s tried and tested; but it’s not the only way it can be done. After drawing inspiration from a lady, whose tactic was to plan and book everything before knowing she had the money to pay for any of it (then using that as motivation to raise funds), I decided to think of a few new ways one might approach planning an adventure of their own.

The first and maybe the least consistent way is to buy a book of countries (they are available) and to simply flick through, stopping on a random page and plan your trip from there. It may not be foolproof; but if you stick to the country you land on, then you are will always get something you weren’t expecting. This can often be the best part about travelling, if you read an itinerary about a boat tour and then book it you will likely get what you read in the summary, it may be fun; but imagine the excitement of a totally random new experience!

Image Credit – Sammie Burstow

My second idea is to change your criteria for choosing where to go. My criteria usually consist of – what temperature will it be or how expensive will flights be to get there? Important things to consider; but again this can get stale. Why not go to a country based on its very unique bird life? Or you could search for the country with the highest density of trees in the world. You might be sceptical, because someone would argue that if you go somewhere with amazing bird fauna it might offer nothing else. At this point, I would remind you that travelling and adventure come not from the country; but, also, the traveller! There are marvels wherever you go and it takes you to make the most of them.

Then I thought, why not travel with two purposes? The first being to explore the country, town or area, then the second is to learn something new. You might go to Indonesia to learn to dive for a week, then spend a week exploring. Or perhaps the west coast of Australia to learn to surf.

My final idea and probably the best for students who are trying to keep their wallet healthy is to go onto Skyscanner and search for the cheapest flights. Then, you have your destination. Alternatively, search for flights in a specific price range. This way you control how much you spend on flights; but also you have minimal bias as to where you can go.

Your travel is your own and I’m not saying these are the only ways to approach it; but they are suggestions you can draw inspiration from. It is clear that the way we travel nowadays is ever-changing and therefore, we must change how we approach it.

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The Wessex Scene is the oldest student news provider at the University of Southampton, and has been in print since 1936. The Scene is written and edited by students, for students, and is always looking to welcome new writers, photographers, designers, researchers and illustrators.